ibeachalot's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day four of my wonderful trip! Okay, what day of my trip had I gotten to? Oh, yeah... MONDAY Monday was comical. There's a place we always go for breakfast when we go to visit, called Dorothy's Cafe. We do Dorothy's on Tuesdays because as long as I can remember, they've been closed on Mondays. We decided to go to a little walk~up stand on the beach known for its breakfast burritos. We drove up and saw no cars and no people. I thought, oh shit! Have they gone out of business? No wait~ there's a sign: CLOSED MONDAYS. Hmmm... okay. This is new. So we drove down the road a bit to Uncle Herb's, a place known for its pancakes. Uh oh. I see no cars and no people. Have they gone out of business after 35 years? Nooooo... they're closed on Mondays now, too. Fuck. I distinctly remember eating breakfast on more than one Monday when we lived there. What gives? So finally, at damn near lunch time, weak with hunger, we stagger into a Bakers Square only a few blocks from the condo where we began this journey. After we ate, Kevin called his friend Bob, who works in the Valley. We made arrangements to meet him for lunch at noon. To kill some time, we walked through some model homes in Oxnard. These places are awesome and quite affordable, by Ventura County standards. One plan would be perfect for us, having seven bedrooms! Kevin fell in love with them, as I knew he would. Stephanie, Larry, Evan and I walked through them back in September. I drove into the Valley while Kevin slept. We met Bob at the Claim Jumper at the Northridge Mall. Wow... I hadn't seen the mall since it was re~built after the '94 quake. This place is huge! There are tons of new businesses in and around the mall. I was stunned! I finally got to meet the infamous Bob V. I've heard about all these years! He's very nice and funny, as well. His mannerisms remind me alot of my dad. Bob told stories about Kevin as a child (they've known each other for 40 years) and confirmed my suspicion that Kevin was indeed a troublemakiung brat!! After we ate, Kevin and I drove all around the Valley. We went to both of the houses in which Kevin lived as a child. They both look awesome. We drove past my old place in (no one admits to having lived in Reseda) Northridge and it looks like hell. The whole cul~de~sac does. Speaking of hell, I drove past Dj's house and saw the awful color she had it painted. She told me when I saw her Wednesday that she hates it and is demanding that it be re~done. It looks like "Pooh's Hunny Pot yellow". Kevin kept asking me, "Now which one is Dj? The blonde?" I swear, he's senile. We stopped at the donut shopped I used to manage in 1984-85. It hasn't been under the same ownership since the early 90's. It's now called "#1 American Donut" which of course means, "Asian owned". The signs I made have finally been replaced after all these years. Kevin and I bought a donut each and shared a mocha latte that the clerk managed to spill all over the counter several times before finally getting it all in the cup. We drove past a few more places before heading back up to Ventura County. We sat in the jacuzzi for a couple of hours until we were weak, then showered and went to dinner. We ate at Wood Ranch, a fancy steak and barbequed ribs place. Mom and I had dinner there with Larry and his parents a couple of years ago. I hadn't been back since. The food was great and there was plenty of it. My god this trip was fun. Tuesday's tales tomorrow! 8:49 a.m. - 2003-04-16 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||
|
||||||